HOBOKEN
– Dressed in black and holding a clear skull-shaped glass vodka bottle in his
hand at a downtown Hoboken bar, a bystander could be mistaken for thinking the iconic actor Dan Aykroyd was making a
reference to Hamlet.

Instead
the affable Canadian actor and comedian was visiting Boa Hoboken
and Biggies Clam Bar on Newark and River Street – in the building of the former famous
Clam Broth House -- to promote his top-shelf Crystal Head Vodka this afternoon.

Aykroyd
is on a tour with his business partner John Anderson, a renowned painter from Texas, greeting fans, signing autographs and posing for photographs.

Aykroyd
may be better known for making movies like "The Blues Brothers'' and "Ghostbusters,'' but
in recent years Aykroyd's career has taken a "sideways shift" from acting to
his business producing Crystal Head Vodka, he said.

He
says he is now devoted full-time to the vodka business and as a liquor producer
is constantly out in the field promoting it while "learning business
tips from distributors and retailers."

"I
am having fun. It's exciting to go into a store in a small town and see the
thing up on the racks up there, or go to a bar and see them serving it and the
way we want them to." Aykroyd said. "It's like any business. You can never take
your eyes off of the child on a playground swing, ...otherwise he will fall off
and hurt himself."

Aykroyd said the award winning vodka lends itself for cocktails.

Despite
the obvious associations of the skull with the music industry, Aykroyd said the
inspiration is more "spiritual."

Aykroyd
and Anderson came up with the
iconic Crystal skull shaped bottle and logo image after looking into the
legends of crystal heads used by Native American tribes, he said.

"Lots of artists love skulls, Gun' and Roses and
Keith Richards has a skull ring," Aykroyd
said. "It's just ubiquitous symbol and fashion statement of anarchy and rebellion
but in our case we look at it from a spiritual angle.

"We
are trading on the legend that the crystal heads used by the Mayans, Navajo and
Aztecs to inform and enlighten the tribe," Aykroyd said. "What we are trying to
do is enlighten the drinker to a better choice and choice that is cleaner than
a lot of lesser products out there."

So the crystal skull also symbolizes purity, he says. The vodka is filtered
multiple times and as a final stage passes three times through "Herkimer"
diamonds, semi-precious quartz crystals.

Using pristine ice melt water from Newfoundland wells and distilled at a stat- run Canadian facility with no additives. This allows the natural flavor to be preserved.

"It's
nice having something I can stand behind and I am confident about its quality,"
Aykroyd said. "People are responding to the taste. I wanted to produce
something that is better than what is out there. I wanted to do something above
the norm.''

The vodka won the Gold Medal for Excellent Taste at the Moscow
ProdExpo 15th International Tasting Contest in 2013 and in 2012 the Best Luxury
Spirit and New Product of the Year at the Australian Liquor Industry Awards,